'To protect the innocent.' Stark County boosts pay for attorneys to help indigent

CANTON – Stark County has fallen behind nearby counties in how much it pays private attorneys to defend indigent people against criminal charges.

Lawyers here earn $40 an hour for work outside of court in criminal cases and $50 an hour for work in court to defend clients who couldn't afford to pay them. The taxpayers foot the bill.

More: 'You deserve this.' Canton mother get life prison sentence for killing toddler

Public defenders: Summit County boosting salaries for public defenders, among lowest paid in the state

But attorneys can do similar work for $75 an hour in Tuscarawas, Portage, Wayne, Summit, Mahoning and Holmes counties. The Office of the Ohio Public Defender had set a maximum standard rate of $75 an hour in 2019, the first change since 2000.

With the state for the first time reimbursing all of the counties' costs of indigent defense, Stark County commissioners recently voted to end this gap.

Effective with legal bills submitted starting June 1, Stark County will pay private attorneys $75 an hour to defend indigent defendants. But that's contingent on the state covering at least 70% of the county's costs for its public defender's office and the cost of private attorneys appointed to represent low-income defendants. Otherwise, the rate will be $65 an hour.

Where defendants face the death penalty, the pay rate for attorneys is $125 an hour. Commissioners adopted significant increases in caps per case set by the Ohio public defender. The maximums will range from $300 for a traffic case to $15,000 for aggravated murder.

It's the first change in Stark County's rate for assigned counsel since 2006 when the commissioners increased the rates by $10.

'It's essential to continuing the fair effective administration of justice here.'

If you or a loved one are charged with a crime, and the defense attorneys assigned to defend you are insufficiently paid or overwhelmed with cases because not enough attorneys will accept the work, that gives prosecutors an unfair advantage, said Ohio Public Defender Tim Young. And that makes it less likely possible errors by police and prosecutors come to light.

In that case, "You have unfair justice. We're not talking about a sporting event where it's win or lose. We're talking about people's freedom. They can go to prison," said Young. "For those cases where prison is appropriate, you want to make sure the right people go to prison for the right amount of time."

Stark County Family Court Judge Rosemarie Hall said the number of attorneys willing to handle appeals for indigent defendants in custody, abuse and neglect cases since January had fallen to two from the usual five or six. With some attorneys apparently favoring taking cases in counties that paid more, it was more difficult to find attorneys to serve as guardians ad litem for children.

"We were concerned, and we felt that the increase in the hourly rate needed to happen," said Hall. "Attorneys have to earn their living. If they're getting paid a lot more in other counties, (then) it's worth it for them to take cases in those other counties. ... We just didn't want the trend to continue."

Stark County Common Pleas Judge Taryn Heath said, "The legal representation is so important to protect individuals from unjust convictions. You never want to see an innocent person convicted. It's to protect the innocent ultimately. ... We are fully supportive of the increase and believe it's essential to continuing the fair effective administration of justice here."

Pay disparity

Private criminal defense attorneys say they often negotiate a set fee with their clients who are not indigent. But if the attorneys bill hourly, that rate can be $200 or $250 or more. They say the hourly rates paid by the county not only help cover their pay but their staff salaries and benefits, and the cost for office space, equipment and supplies.

"If you have overmatched and underpaid defense counsel, it's not good for the system in general," said Bradley Iams, a criminal defense attorney who chairs the Stark County Public Defender Commission. "... Everyone wins when attorneys are adequately compensated. Nobody's getting rich doing these things."

Private attorney Anthony Koukoutas, based in Canton, has billed Stark County more than $61,000 to defend indigent people since 2018. One of his recent indigent defendants was Mary Guarendi of Canton who last month pleaded guilty to killing her 18-month-old son.

Koukoutas in the case billed Stark County for more than 30 hours of work or $1,268. He said he often agrees to judges' requests to represent indigent defendants because such appointments helped him establish his practice after he became an attorney in 1998.

A higher rate "definitely helps to attract younger attorneys who are just getting out of law school to get their feet wet with appointed work. They have expenses just like everyone else. They have student loans and other payments they have to worry about as well," said Koukoutas, who pointed out that in federal courts appointed attorneys in non-capital cases earn up to $158 an hour. "You can't expect some of the younger attorneys to come to a county and work here if they can't make (enough) money. ... We have to pay a secretary. We have to pay insurance. We have all these other bills we have to pay."

Akron-based private attorney Jacob Will has billed Stark County nearly $94,000 to defend indigent people from 2018 to 2021. He said serving as appointed counsel was essential to building his practice.

"If the county is not willing to pay what the Ohio Public Defender thinks the rate should be, lawyers who would take appointments might stop taking them," he said. "You'll get a better pool of lawyers taking cases when the rates go up."

Who could be your attorney

In Stark County, people charged with crimes that could lead to a jail or prison sentence but can't afford an attorney are usually represented by the Stark County Public Defender's Office, led by Tammi Johnson.

Its 22 attorneys handle more than 10,000 cases a year. However, in cases with other indigent co-defendants whose interests diverge, a judge will appoint for them a private attorney. In the most serious felony cases, appointed attorneys have to be certified through trial experience and legal education to meet state standards for the type of case.

Stark County paid nearly $951,000 to private attorneys to defend indigent people in 2017, according to figures provided by the commissioners' office. The figure dropped to nearly $770,000 last year.

The Public Defender's Office's expenses have risen from $1.85 million in 2017 to $2.14 million last year. Its attorneys earn from $50,000 a year to more than $70,000 a year. With the state's doubling reimbursements from $1.34 million in 2016 to $2.6 million last year, the county's net cost for public defense of indigent defendants has plunged from $1.58 million to less than $307,000 in 2021.

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Private attorneys defend low-income clients to get higher pay